Is the WNBA doomed?

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, July 28, 2008

Ryan Thurman

The WNBA is finally getting the attention they've always wanted though I am sure they wish they could have generated it in a different fashion. (I was half expecting they would have eventually started playing in bikinis or putting on gimmick nights like minor league baseball teams, so at least this is about the competition.)

Maybe it's just the Palace in Auburn Hills (which is where the Pacers and the Pistons got into it in 2004) that makes people want to fight, but maybe that little scuffle amounts to something so much more. Something very deep that was gnawing at the insides of the athletes of the WNBA. Maybe they wanted to show everyone who wasn't watching that they are passionate and talented and the frustration came out in the form of an attention-drawing melee.

That one little scuffle could possibly regenerate the league and provide some much needed income and hopefully kick-start a declining fan base (not that I have anything against this particular stations, but some of their games in the recent past where broadcast on Lifetime . . . ouch). That one little cat fight could keep the WNBA from going under and provide future generations of women basketball players from having to travel elsewhere to use their talents to make a living. (Which, in my opinion, is a little odd. The money can't be much better here in America and before the WNBA women went to Europe to play. To me, that seems like it would be a draw, not a deterrent.)

However, one question lingers over this situation: Will it be enough? Will it create enough interest? Can the league and players take advantage and provide some basketball drama? Can they endure? (OK, that was four, but I see the three after the first as extensions of the initial question, plus the drama of saying one question lingers works better rhetorically.)

I don't mean this next statement to be malicious or condescending towards the WNBA or their fans, so please don't take offense, but to answer my own question, I don't think so.

In a game earlier this season between the Mystics and the Fever, they couldn't manage to score 100 points combined (Mystics 50, Fever 48).

That just won't do (unless everybody was playing tied to another player like a game you would play at summer camp). The fun of modern basketball is the constant back and forth and high scoring.

Modern basketball (and by modern basketball I mean the NBA, which the WNBA is trying to emulate) is also driven by individual star power. The NBA draft lottery (not even the actual drafting of the players) is aired on ESPN in prime time. I'm not even really sure when the WNBA holds their draft.

The WNBA's brightest young star, whose name and school she attended I actually know off of the top of my head (Candice Parker, Tennessee and no I did not have to Google it), was heavily involved in the ruckus, but did you know this seasons she also became the second woman to dunk in the WNBA? (Her teammate Lisa Leslie was the first.) I think I heard a passing mention of it on SportsCenter before they moved on to spending a half hour discussing something like if it was unethical for Brett Favre to use a Packer-issued cell phone to make calls to the Vikings. WNBA supporters were desperately hoping Parker could inject some energy and excitement into to the league, but I don't think they had a fight in mind.

When a young star comes into the NBA, there is nothing more important to talk about. (In fact, they get talked about before they graduate high school now-a-days.)

I've only had cable back for about a week, but I've been able to keep up with Around the Horn and SportsCenter (much to the dismay of my lovely girlfriend), but I am racking my brain and can't remember the WNBA or Parker getting any sort of prime placement on these shows until now.

That doesn't bode well for the league.

If you are a fan of the WNBA, I hope my laments haven't put a damper on your hopes and dreams of the league not only surviving, but flourishing and rivaling the NBA for television time, but as I always strive to be in these rants, I'm only being honest. The WNBA is going to need something more than a bench-clearing brawl to spawn lasting interest in the league.

But keep your head up, maybe teams tied together isn't such a distant future after all.